Think “Latinas in hip-hop,” and you’re more likely to conjure up images of curvaceous video vixens than rappers slaying it — but the truth is Latinos have existed in hip-hop from its inception. In fact, as hip-hop scholar Raquel Z. Rivera reminds us in her book New York Ricans From the Hip-Hop Zone, the music and dance bears as much resemblance to African-American styles like blues and jazz as it does to Puerto Rican musical forms like bomba and plena. Ultimately, hip-hop culture is inherently Puerto Rican culture.